This is Crash Course World History.

We're back!

Stan, we painted over all the green parts

of not-America with this globe.

We need a new globe!

Yesss!

New globe!

Also this one magically opens

and stuff comes out of it.

So it turns out,

surprisingly enough,

there is more world history

than we could fit into 42 episodes.

So for the next 30 episodes

we're gonna fill in some gaps

that we missed before.

But we're also gonna expand on

some of the big ideas about history.

And we're gonna continue,

not to sound meta,

to try to think about

how we think about history

by approaching the study of history

from different perspectives.

Mister Green! Mister Green!

Wait.

I don't understand how all this stuff's gonna help me

get a five on the AP test.

Ohhh...Me from the past.

I'm gonna let you in on little secret.

How well you do on the AP World History test

is not actually the event

that's going to shape

the course of your life.

And you are not actually

getting an education

so that you could get good grades

so that you can go to college

so that you can get a job.

We are investing as a social order

in your education because it is useful to us

to have you be an informed

and engaged citizen of the world.

I'm not interested in cramming

the facts down your throat

that will allow you to get a five on the AP test.

That's not what gets me excited in the morning.

And I don't wanna be presumptuous.

But I think I can speak for your teachers

when I say that's also not why they're doing their jobs.

Me from the past,

the biggest problem with being alive

is that you can only see the world out of your eyes.

You can only live inside of your skin,

your consciousness.

You can't effectively imagine

what it's like to be someone else.

But the study of history allows you

to empathize better;

it allows you to think more complexly about others.

And that's gonna useful to you

not just on AP test

but in every single moment of your entire life.

So I don't care that you have

already taken the AP test

because, and I say this with love,

you are still kind of an idiot.

And so am I.

So we're gonna learn this stuff together

in the hopes that what we learn

can somehow contribute in a small way

to making our lives better,

but also to making other lives better.

So we're gonna look at complicated

and problematic ideas like civilization.

We're gonna look at things like

the history of money and economics,

how environmental changes have affected

the stability of social orders.

And we're gonna talk about how war and disease and technology

have not only shaped the world that people used to live in

but also the one that we're living in now.

And yes,

due to extensive popular request,

we will be talking about Vikings.

So it's gonna be a fun 30 weeks.

Full of Vikings and pirates and complex ideas

and dirty jokes that can be read two ways

so they can still be shown in class.

We're so excited to back teaching you more World History.

Thank you for watching.

We see you next week.